Tasting Notes 2026
Spring forward and fall back into the old routine. Winter is on the horizon again in the Northern Hemisphere and just as reliably here, therefore, comes our annual tips for success, the feature we like to sub-title “bands/artists that don’t yet have an album, but from whom we’d like one soon”. Catchy, huh? Like always, we’ll kick off by appraising the progress – or otherwise – of last year’s chosen few as what, simply, is the point of a list like this if we’re ultimately not held accountable for it?
So, first up, dreamy San Francisco shoegazer Wisp (Natalie Lu) who – pleasingly – followed up last year’s spectacular debut EP with a full-length on Interscope. Downright bathing in celestial wooze, it’s another strong offering that’ll further cement her place in the pantheon of modern greats. See where it hits in our AOTY list soon (let’s just pretend that ill-advised cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow” never happened). Anyway, warped by the Phoenix sun, Glixen’s own take on the shoegaze revival opened the door for their Wichita debut earlier this year, another swoonsome EP that sits on the edge of intangibility before desert storms bring powerful electric storms.
Another with a new EP to their name (plus a new single) are Belfast neo-industrial, rabble-rousers Chalk. Bigger, ballsier, and brattier, they’re one of a number of artists now seemingly circling the drain of a full-blown hybrid/Big Beat resurgence. For the time being it’s all fun and flirtation; there’ll need to be a chaperone if/when they all get a bit more handsy, however. Not one to miss the party, Manchester-based TTSSFU, the DIY dream-pop band led by Tasmin Stephens, marked their step up to Partisan with a scuffed yet sultry new EP too. Arty and edgy, it bites just as much as it coos, and – honestly – we’re all in. Goth-leaning, Manchester-based post-punk outfit Dantzic round out this summary with just one new track on the table, but it’s a good’un and there’s talk of a new EP to come in 2026, so for now let’s just leave them to incubate.
All told, we’re quite pleased with last year’s picks and their progress. Anyway, with that round-up done and dusted, let’s head on over to the main event. Here goes nothing then; 2026’s ones to watch are below.
Young Belfast outfit Makeshift Art Bar are first with their thrusting noise-rock/post-punk grooves, their spindly debut EP, Lackluster Writing …, an exhilarating, thoroughly modern listen, a stand-alone, electro-fired single with Mount Palomar displaying range and vision too. Key track: Bedwetter
Posturing London neo-goths Dog Race hit with an impressive strike rate on their debut EP, Return The Day, often winning by way more than a nose as the five-piece alternate between whispery-yet-pained howls at the moon and straight-up, kohl-lined seduction. Key track: It’s The Squeeze
With two industrial-leaning, self-titled/numbered EPs this year, impressive and intense Dublin ear-botherers Yard are part of that electro-punk vanguard threatening a banging Big Beat revival – see Chalk (kudos “nerd” points if you know what links these first three tips). Key track: Essential Tremor
Bleak London alt/shoegazers Adele Dazeem don’t count a single Adele amongst them (it’s a Broadway meme thing), their indistinct debut EP, Metanoia (meaning a profound shift in perspective), out now courtesy of the hallowed, on-trend halls of Sonic Cathedral. Key track: Misère
Manchester-based The Cutter cram a lot into their dark and doomy, new-waving self-titled EP. Every ounce of the band’s fierce stage energy committed to tape, it marauds deliberately from the antisocial to the euphoric, the downright melancholy to the outright serene. Key track: Stereotype
Got a new band/artist you want to see make an album in 2026? Want to slag these choices off? Know something we don’t about any of the artists mentioned above? Let us know your thoughts using the comments below.